Auburn's incoming football class is set; Tigers continue to play the recruiting game

Auburn football practice will kick off Aug. 3, or 4th, or 5th. The school still hasn't said when the fun officially begins. Maybe tomorrow. But whenever it does, the Tigers will have a lot of newcomers to welcome to the practice field.

Joel Bonomolo: Officially headed to Auburn (AuburnSports.com photo)

Guess everybody saw in the last day that junior college transfer and defensive end Joel Bonomolo has been OK'd by the NCAA Clearinghouse and will be one of 30 newcomers for the 2010 Tigers. He was the missing piece from the story we wrote about the incoming class in June. It all means coach Gene Chizik has done a remarkably good job getting almost every one of his signees in school.

He needs them to replenish his roster after playing short-handed last year.

Auburn had 32 in its signing class, and 30 will be on board when Bonomolo shows up in early August. Five of the 32 counted back to the 2009 signing class. They enrolled early and participated in spring practice. Auburn will be close to 85 on scholarship, after playing with around 74 last season.

We quoted Gene Chizik about these happier numbers a few weeks ago. A leftover observation about recruiting for a full year toward signing day 2010, as opposed to the seven weeks he had from December 2008 to signing day 2009:

"It was important, not only to evaluate guys, but spending the quality time recruiting them and building relationships. That's what recruiting is all about,'' Chizik said.

**Auburn's final big
recruiting on-campus effort of the summer -- for the 2011 recruiting class -- will be this weekend. The Tigers
expect more than 400 players in Saturday, some of whom are top targets.

This is the second showcase camp of the summer.

There's a special teams camp Sunday.

Auburn has eight commitments
for 2011. The Tigers had seven commitments for the 2010 signing class a
year ago before adding four more from the middle of July to the end of
that month. Maybe this weekend will lay the foundation for another round of commitments.

Checking in with Shon Coleman

**One of the two players who won't report this summer is offensive lineman Shon Coleman.

He's at home fighting cancer. His mother, De Keisha Tunstall, reports this week that Coleman continues to improve.

"Just wanted to let everyone know that Shon's treatment is still going well,'' she wrote on a website she uses to update his condition. "We are out of Phase 2, and now into Phase 3. The worst of the chemo is now over and Shon came through like a pro. Minimal side effects, no hair loss and he only dropped a small amount of weight.

"The power of prayer is amazing. Everyone's prayers have brought us this far, and I KNOW he will make it through the remaining treatments without issue."